February 18, 2015, 9:49AM

A new scientific study documented what had been apparent for some time: Voluntary reductions in fertilizer use along the upper Mississippi River aren't enough to significantly reduce the annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The fertilizer limits have been in place since 2001, and the goal was to reduce the size of the dead zone to no... Full story »

February 03, 2015, 3:25PM

Major voluntary strategies used on Midwest farmland to curb fertilizers that feed the annual low oxygen "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico don't remove enough nutrients to succeed, according to a new, peer reviewed scientific study. But combining those strategies with new techniques, including strategically restoring wetlands in some Midwest locations, could reduce nitrogen runoff from farmlands by 45... Full story »

November 10, 2014, 12:36PM

Scientists have long known that warmer water increases the problem, but a new study found about two dozen different ways — biologically, chemically and physically — that climate change worsens the oxygen depletion. Full story »

October 07, 2014, 5:28PM

Jews around the world are celebrating the High Holiday season; we commemorate another trip around the sun and anticipate another year of striving to live our lives according to our highest principles and ideals. One of the high points of this period is that of Sukkot, sometimes referred to as the Feast of Tabernacles, which begins this week. During... Full story »

August 04, 2014, 3:57PM

This year's low-oxygen "dead zone" along Louisiana coast covers 5,052 square miles, an area the size of the state of Connecticut but about 800 square miles less than the 2013 dead zone, according to a week-long survey released Monday. The finding, by a team of scientists led by Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium Director Nancy Rabalais, is within the range estimated in late June... Full story »

August 01, 2014, 5:06PM

Re: 'Dead zone' the size of Connecticut expected along Louisiana coast, scientists say, June 24. A recent article detailed the National Oceanic and Atmo­spheric Administration's esti­mate that the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico this year will be about the size of the state of Connecticut. Decomposing algae in deep waters depletes oxygen in the lower water column. The fish... Full story »

July 02, 2014, 12:38PM

Re: "Dead zone the size of Connecticut expected along Louisiana coast, scientists say," June 25, NOLA.com. This should be a reminder of the importance of the Gulf hypoxia issue for our state. Louisiana should be aware of another aspect of this situation, the potential loss of funding for the annual mapping cruise done by the Louisiana Univer­sities Marine Consortium, or... Full story »

June 24, 2014, 6:08PM

The size of the annual summer "dead zone" of low-oxygen water in the Gulf of Mexico along Louisiana's coast will cover between 4,633 and 5,708 miles, about the size of the state of Connecticut, according to a Tuesday forecast announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's about average for the size of the low-oxygen area since 1985, but still... Full story »

June 16, 2014, 8:25AM

Louisiana's spring shrimp season is officially open, but what should be a time to celebrate the annual kickoff of a key driver of the coastal economy is now overshadowed by a looming threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem. The "dead zone" -- a Connecticut-sized area of low oxygen water that kills off marine life -- continues to grow... Full story »

May 28, 2014, 2:15PM

The global seafood industry is under threat from climate change and ocean acidification, and reducing CO2 emissions is required to safeguard the industy's future, according to a report jointly published Wednesday by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, the University of Cambridge's Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Cambridge's Judge Business School. The statement, based on findings from the recently released Intergovernmental... Full story »

February 17, 2014, 5:29PM

Backed by an initial $1 million donation from the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation, Tulane University on Monday launched a Grand Challenge prize program to find a new technological solution for the low-oxygen hypoxia areas known as "dead zones" that form off the coast of Louisiana and at other locations around the world. Both Tulane University President Scott Cowen and... Full story »

February 14, 2014, 4:54PM

Tulane University President Scott Cowen will announce the creation of a $1 million "Grand Challenge" prize aimed at finding better ways to fight hypoxia, a low-oxygen condition that creates annual springtime "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico and in other water locations around the world. "With Tulane's uptown, downtown and West Bank campuses located so close to the... Full story »

September 25, 2013, 4:33PM

MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. is falling short of its goals to cut Mississippi River pollution and shrink the "Dead Zone" it creates in the Gulf of Mexico. Speaking in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Environmental Protection Agency officials said states in the river's watershed need to accelerate efforts to cut pollution from farm field runoff and discharges from sewage treatment plants.... Full story »

September 23, 2013, 7:10PM

A federal judge in New Orleans has handed environmental groups what amounts to half a loaf in their push for federal regulations on the flow of pollutants into the Mississippi River that fuels the annual spring low-oxygen “Dead Zone” along Louisiana’s Gulf coast. U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey on Friday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must issue a... Full story »

July 29, 2013, 10:37AM

The Dead Zone, an area of oxygen so low that Gulf-bottom organisms are killed and fish and crabs swim away, covered 5,840 square miles of Gulf of Mexico seafloor along Louisiana's coastline this summer, according to a survey by scientists based at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. That's more than twice the measured area in 2012, and greater than... Full story »

March 29, 2013, 3:18PM

The National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday announced it has agreed to determine whether sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico are a distinct population that should be listed as an endangered or threatened species, separate from sperm whales outside the Gulf. The status change, requested by the WildEarth Guardians environmental group in December 2011, could result in the... Full story »

October 05, 2012, 4:05PM

The fellowship was presented to Rabalais for “documenting the environmental and economic consequences of hypoxic zones in the Gulf of Mexico and informing strategies for restoring the degraded waters of the Gulf and the Mississippi River basins.” Full story »